SANTA FE, N. M. – If there was doubt about the playful nature of the bond between Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, they confirmed their penchant for foolishness during a news conference promoting The Lone Ranger.

Opening July 3, the origins remake of the 1950s TV show has Depp portraying Tonto while Hammer is the iconic masked man. The high-concept western has some serious moments but the general tone of the spectacular action flick is light and lively.

How so? On occasion, the 50-year-old would tickle the 26-year-old Hammer when he would attempt to answer a question.

“This is what happened between takes,” said director Gore Verbinski, responding to the silliness beside him. “That’s why it took 150 days to make the movie.”

In the film, the action kicks in when Depp’s Tonto discovers Hammer’s John Reid (soon to be The Lone Ranger) after Reid gets bushwhacked along with a posse of Texas Rangers that includes Reid’s brother (James Badge Dale). As the only survivor, Reid wants to seek revenge so Tonto convinces him to wear a mask to conceal his identity.

William Fichtner plays The Lone Ranger’s archenemy outlaw Butch Cavendish. Tom Wilkinson defines the shifty railroad man with an agenda and Helena Bonham Carter shows up now and again as a one-legged saloon owner and madam.

Another British actress, Ruth Wilson, has a more pivotal role. She makes her Hollywood film debut playing the widowed wife of The Lone Ranger’s brother and potential love interest for her brother-in-law.

The relationship isn’t a set up for jokes, but Wilson thought she, too, would have a laugh describing it.

“Gore was quite intent on the relationship being the heart of the movie,” said Wilson of the unspoken love between The Lone Ranger and his brother’s wife.

In retrospect, she came up with another idea. “It’s a little bit like Dawson’s Creek,” noted a smiling Wilson referring to the teen show featuring a love triangle. “(My character) married the more dangerous, exhilarating one and she should have married the other guy.”

Chuckles aside, Verbinski said that Hammer had the difficult task of grounding the film loosely based on a 1930s radio show which transformed into the more familiar TV series.

“In the TV show (The Lone Ranger) has a code,” said the director. “We have a flesh-and-blood Lone Ranger who struggles with his code.”

With Depp in place, the long search for the masked man didn’t begin and end with Hammer but he was in the running after performances in The Social Network portraying both Winklevoss twins and in J. Edgar as longtime companion Clyde Tolson opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s J. Edgar Hoover .

“We couldn’t get Jimmy Stewart,” said the director when asked why he selected the actor. More seriously, Verbinski added: “He’s a brilliant actor and tall and handsome. Who doesn’t want to put that in a meat grinder and see what happens?”

Thankfully, there was an instant connection between Depp and Hammer easily recognized by Verbinski. He’s become a good friend and key collaborator with Depp after four successful Pirates of the Caribbean films and Rango, the hit animated motion picture.

“We had to collide these guys together,” said Verbinski looking over at Depp and Hammer still fooling around. “I mean just look at them – they are a pair of numbskulls.”

However, both tried to behave themselves at a cowboy boot camp where they were taught how to saddle and ride a horse at top speed, fire revolvers and look comfortable in frontier garb and Native trappings.

Their pre-production training allowed the director to use both actors in some action sequences filmed in the desert-and-mountain vistas of New Mexico and Colorado.

Certainly, the location filming was exciting and grueling at the same time, but it was the new kid on the block who kept the energy flowing and the on-set attitude positive.

“We are all cynical and jaded veterans of this business,” Verbinski said. “So it was day 93, and we are covered in dust, and it’s in our ears, up our noses, in our food, and the train doesn’t work and the crew is down.

“And Armie walks in and says, “Look what we get to do today.’ We are very privileged to be doing what we do and he would remind us of that.”

The incurable optimist, who had never galloped on a horse before the movie, even became proficient enough to push the boundaries of his abilities.

“I learned how to ride a horse through a moving train while firing two pistols simultaneously,” said Hammer proudly.

“I’m not sure that’s a very applicable skill, and I probably won’t be able to use it in L. A. traffic, but it was fun to do.”

Postmedia News

bthompson@postmedia.com

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